Kevin Smith is "week to week"

Posted by Gregg Rosenthal on September 28, 2009, 7:09 PM EST

Though Lions running back Kevin Smith has expressed optimism that he’ll be able to return from a shoulder injury to play at Chicago on Sunday, a league source tells us that Smith’s availability is “week to week” at this point.

“I’m alive,” Smith said Monday, per Nicholas Cotsonika of the Detroit Free Press. “I’m not ready to play if we had to play a game
tomorrow, and that’s just probably because of the general soreness. But
I’m 22 years old. I usually heal pretty fast. I don’t have any bone
damage or anything like that.”

Smith has 101 yards rushing on 16 carries when he left Sunday’s game in the third quarter.

Looks like the Bears will have a third straight week of playing a team that is missing one of its three most important players. First the Steelers without Troy Polamula, then the Seahawks without Matt Hasselbeck, and now the Lions sans Kevin Smith.